Chocolate Orange Cheesecake

Cheesecake. I love it.

We had another birthday at work—a perfect excuse to make a cheesecake.

What took me the longest was to decide which from among our many, possibly hundreds, of cheesecake recipes to make.

I finally decided to go with one Katie and I have made countless times, Chocolate Orange Cheesecake. In my opinion, chocolate and orange go perfectly together. Those chocolate oranges (by Cadbury?) are a must have each year in our Christmas stockings. And, I recently found a recipe for candied orange wedges dipped in chocolate that I think might have to try very soon.

This cheesecake is fairly easy, and always a crowd pleaser. However, I did make one slight modification this time. After I took the cheesecake out of the oven, I forgot to loosen it from the sides of the pan as stated in the recipe. This caused the cheesecake to develop a giant crack. Usually, this doesn't bother me, but since it's for a birthday, I decided to cover it up with a ganache. Not only was this a simple way to cover up the flaw but it added pizazz. And, ganache always makes everything better, right?

I skipped breakfast (a no-no, I know), so it's truly a miracle I

made to work with the cheesecake intact. 

Birthday boy, Steven, with the remnants of

the snarf-fest. And since it was his birthday,

I let him have that last piece. I was sure

tempted to call that lunch.

Chocolate Orange Cheesecake

Ingredients:

• 1 cup chocolate wafer crumbs
  
• ¼ tsp. cinnamon
  
• 3 Tbsps. butter, melted
  
• 4 8-oz. packages cream cheese
  
• ¾ cup sugar
  
• 4 eggs
  
• ½ cup sour cream
  
• 1 tsp. vanilla
  
• ½ cup semi-sweet chocolate chips, melted
  
• 2 Tbsps. orange flavored liqueur (or 2 Tbsps. orange juice with ½ tsp. orange flavored extract)
  
• ½ tsp. grated orange peel
  
• ¾ cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
  
• ¼ cup whipping cream
  

Combine crumbs, cinnamon and butter. Press onto bottom of 9-in. springform pan. Bake at 325° for 10 minutes.


Combine cream cheese and sugar, mixing at medium speed on electric mixer until well blended. Add eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Blend in sour cream and vanilla. Blend ½ cup chocolate into 3 cups batter. Blend liqueur and peel into remaining batter. Pour chocolate batter over crust. Bake at 350° for 30 minutes. Using a thin knife or small offset spatula, loosen cake from rim of pan. Cool before removing rim of pan.


Melt ¾ cup chocolate chips with whipping cream over low heat. Stir continuously until smooth. Spread over cheesecake.


Chill cheesecake for several hours, best overnight.